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Artificial intelligence, robots and a human touch – The Guardian, 19th April 2018

Deborah O’Neill on the failings of automation at Tesla and elsewhere, and Matt Meyer and Nick Lynch on the House of Lords AI select committee report.

The House of Lords report (Cambridge Analytica scandal ‘highlights need for AI regulation’, theguardian.com, 16 March) outlining the UK’s potential to be a global leader in artificial intelligence – and its calls for governmental support of businesses in the field and education to equip people to work alongside AI in the jobs of the future – should be welcomed for two reasons. First, it recognises the potential of UK-based AI companies to benefit the economy. Supporting these fast-growing companies to ensure that they continue to scale – and eventually exit – here should be a strategic priority, particularly at a time when a new generation of fast-growth providers, such as Prowler.io and Benevolent AI in life sciences, and ThoughtRiver in legal tech, is emerging to build on an impressive track record of AI innovation in the UK, from Alan Turing to DeepMind.

Second, it acknowledges that AI can contribute significantly to businesses’ competitive advantage – a view that few too UK businesses seem to appreciate at a time when media coverage of the topic is dominated by scaremongering about job losses, security threats, ethics, and bias. It’s refreshing to see a more positive narrative about AI and the workplace starting to emerge. What we now need to see is more of from the business world is openness to the opportunities that AI creates in terms of continuing, and expanding on, the positivity of this report, and leadership in sharing their successes in this area that others can learn from.Matt MeyerCEO, Taylor Vinters